Types Of Distillation

Name Marui Uqaili

Roll No 13CH56

Presented To Prof Dr Aziza Aftab

Department Of Chemical Engineering

Mehran University Of Engineering And Technology

Jamshoro

Contents

Distillation process

Types of distillation

Distillation equipments and their properties

Types: Simple, Fractional, Vacuum, Steam And

Azeotropic

Applications

Distillation
Distillation is a kind of separation technique of two or more
volatile liquid compounds by using the difference in boiling
points and relative volatility.
The process takes place in a column, and two heat
exchangers.
In the column two phases, liquid and gas, are distributed to
enrich the vapour in more volatile compounds and enrich the
liquid phase on less volatile compounds.
Mass transfer is the key to a successful distillation.

Advantages And
Disadvantages
Advantages
It has simple flow sheet, low capital
investment, and low risk. If components to be
separated have a high relative volatility
difference and are thermally stable, distillation
is hard to beat.
Disadvantages
Distillation has a low energy efficiency and
requires thermal stability of compounds at
their boiling points. It may not be attractive
when azeotropes are involved or when it is
necessary to separate high boiling
components, present in small concentrations,
from large volumes of a carrier, such as water.

Continuous Distillation
Liquid mixture runs down the column while
vapour goes up.
Vapour is produced by partial vaporisation of
the mixture which is heated in reboiler.
The mixture which is to be separated is fed to
column at one or more points.
Then vapour is partially condensed to earn
back the less volatile compounds to the
column to separate as bottom product. (reflux

Batch Distillation
The oldest operation used for separation of
liquid mixtures.
Feed is fed from bottom, where includes
reboiler, to be processed.
Numbers of accumulator tanks are connected
to collect the main and the intermediate
distillate fractions.

Semi Batch Distillation

Semi-batch distillation is very similar to batch
distillation.
Feed is introduced to column in a continuous or semicontinuous mode.
It is suitable for extractive and reactive distillations.

Comparison Of Distillation
Types
For batch distillation, it is enough
to use only one column to
separate multi component liquid
mixture
One sequence of operation is
enough to separate all the
components in a mixture.

Equipment Designs

Plate Columns (Tray Columns)

Packed Beds

Plate Columns (Tray

Columns)

It is the most widely used kind of distillation column.

Trays are shaped to maximize the liquid-vapour

contact and increase the mass transfer area.

Tray types include sieve, valve and bubble cap.

Advantages And
Disadvantages
Advantages
Least expensive column for diameters greater than
0.6m
The liquid-vapour contact in the cross-flow of plate
columns is more effective than counter current-flow in
packed columns.
Cooling coils can be easily added to the plate column
Can handle high liquid flow rates.

Disadvantages
Higher pressure drops than packed columns
Foaming can occur because the liquid is
agitated by the vapour flowing up through it

Packed Beds

Packings can be provided either as dumped or

stacked.

Dumped packing constitutes of bulk inert materials.

Stacked packing is includes meshwork which has

the same diameter with the column.

Important criteria for packings are efficient contact

(liquid-vapour), resistance to flow, flow capacity,
resistance of packing against corrosion.

Advantages And
Disadvantages
Advantages
When the diameter is less than 0.6m it is less
expensive than the plate column.
Packing is able to handle corrosive materials.
Lower pressure drop than in plate columns.
Good for thermally sensitive liquids
Disadvantages
Can break during installation or due to thermal
expansion.
Not cost efficient for high liquid flow rates.
Contact efficiencies are decreased when the liquid flow
rate is too low

Simple Distillation

Insimple distillation, the vapor is immediately

channeled into a condenser. Consequently, the
distillate is not pure but rather its composition is
identical to the composition of the vapors at the
given temperature and pressure. That concentration
followsRaoult's law.

As a result, simple distillation is effective only when

the liquid boiling points differ greatly (rule of thumb
is 25C)[18]or when separating liquids from nonvolatile solids or oils. For these cases, the vapor
pressures of the components are usually different
enough that the distillate may be sufficiently pure for
its intended purpose.

Fractional Distillation
Fractional distillation differs from distillation
only in that it separates a mixture into a
number of different parts, calledfractions.
A tall column is fitted above the mixture, with
several condensers coming off at different
heights. The column is hot at the bottom and
cool at the top. Substances with high boiling
points condense at the bottom and substances
with low boiling points condense at the top.
Like distillation, fractional distillation works
because the different substances in the
mixture have different boiling points.

Vacuum Distillation

Laboratory-scale vacuum distillation is used when liquids to be distilled

have high atmospheric boiling points orchemically change at
temperatures near their atmospheric boiling points. Temperature
sensitive materials (such asbeta carotene) also require vacuum
distillation to removesolventsfrom the mixture without damaging the
product. Another reason vacuum distillation is used is that compared to
steam distillation there is a lower level of residue build up. This is
important in commercial applications whereheat transferis produced
usingheat exchangers.

There are many laboratory applications for vacuum distillation as well

as many types of distillation set-ups and apparatuses.

Safety is an important consideration when using glassware as part of

the set-up. All of the glass components should be carefully examined
for scratches and cracks which could result in implosions when the
vacuum is applied. Wrapping as much of the glassware with tape as is
practical helps to prevent dangerous scattering of glass shards in the
event of an implosion.

Steam Distillation

When a mixture of two practicallyimmiscibleliquids is heated

while being agitated to expose the surface of one liquid to the
vapor phase, each constituent independently exerts its own
vapor pressureas a function of temperature as if the other
constituent were not present. Consequently, the vapor
pressure of the whole system increases. Boiling begins when
the sum of thepartial pressuresof the two immiscible liquids
just exceeds theatmospheric pressure(approximately 101
kPaat sea level). In this way, many organic compounds
insoluble in water can be purified at a temperature well below
the point at which decomposition occurs. For example, the
boiling point of bromo benzeneis 156Cand the boiling point
of water is 100C, but a mixture of the two boils at 95C.
Thus, bromo benzene can be easily distilled at a temperature
61C below its normal boiling point.

Azeotropic Distillation

Inchemistry,Azeotropic distillationis any of a range of

techniques used to break anazeotropein distillation. In
chemical engineering,Azeotropic distillationusually refers
to the specific technique of adding another component to
generate a new, lower-boiling azeotrope that is
heterogeneous (e.g. producing two, immiscible liquid
phases), such as the example below with the addition of
benzene to water and ethanol. This practice of adding an
entrained which forms a separate phase is a specific subset of (industrial)Azeotropic distillation methods, or
combination thereof. In some senses, adding an entrained
is similar toextractive distillation.

Applications Of Distillation

Simple distillation is still used to obtain pure drinking water out of hard or contaminated
water and also used to make homemade perfumes, liquor, and soaps.

Fractional distillation is used for the alcohol purification and gasoline

purification in petroleum refining industries

Steam distillation is widely used for large-scale separation of essential

oils, fats, waxes, and perfumes.

For the separation of some aromatic compounds, vacuum distillation is

used along with steam distillation. When vacuum distillation is
combined with fractional distillation method, components of a mixture
get separated very easily.

Azeotropic distillation of ethanol forgasolineaddition, the most

common means of breaking the azeotrope is the use of
molecular sieves. Ethanol is distilled to 96%, then run over a molecular
sieve which adsorbs water from the mixture. The concentration is now
above 96% and can be further distilled. The sieve is heated to remove
the water and reused